Frankfurt Book Fair kicks off with eyes on India

FRANKFURT: The world's biggest book fair gets underway Wednesday with Indian authors taking on center stage and a new scheme to protect writers' copyrights from Internet piracy creating a buzz.

The 58th Frankfurt Book Fair brings together publishers from more than 100 countries for wheeling and dealing, and has spotlighted India this year as its guest country with a packed program of readings and debates.

More than 70 authors from the world's largest democracy have arrived in the German financial capital for a broad cultural showcase that will also feature dance, drama, films and even live yoga demonstrations.

Mahasweta Devi said the fair would have to struggle to capture the endless contradictions and breathtaking pace of change in her country.

"India has learned to survive, to adapt, to keep the old with the modern, to walk hand in hand with the new millennium whistling a tune from the dawn of time," she told a gala opening ceremony late on Tuesday.

"Culture is what will take us into the future yet keep us in close contact with our roots, our history, our tradition, our heritage."

Amitav Ghosh, Amit Chaudhuri and Kiran Desai -- shortlisted this year for the Man Booker prize -- are among the Indian writers who will present their work at the event with more than 7,000 exhibitors and some 280,000 visitors expected before the fair closes Sunday.

Zadie Smith, Donna Leon, Ken Follett and German Nobel laureate Guenter Grass, fresh from a scandal over his late revelation that he served in the Nazis' feared Waffen SS force during World War II, are among other writers who will be walking the vast halls in Frankfurt.

The boom in electronic publishing will also be in focus this year, as well as concerns posed by Internet search engine Google's practice of posting scanned pages from books online which has landed it in hot water with publishers and authors.

A new system is set to be unveiled at the event Friday that would allow publishing houses to safeguard their copyrights by attaching conditions to reproduce content seen online.

The book fair also hopes to keep up with innovations in the industry with a "Digital Market Place" where software companies can promote advanced multimedia products.

"A few years ago, the subject of digitalization was so new that the Frankfurt Book Fair devoted its own hall to it," event director Juergen Boos told reporters.

"Today multimedia products are a natural part of publishers' portfolios and are now back in the stands with the printed works."

The fair will also feature a "Berlinale" day in honor of the Berlin International Film Festival held each February.

The aim of the event, which will feature screenings of a number of recent films based on novels, is to promote book fairs as prime hunting ground for Hollywood producers scouting new material.

And a literacy campaign is being launched at the event in partnership with UNESCO to aid the 700 million adults worldwide who are unable to read. —AFP